Cassens, Gasparovic Finish 3-0 on Day One at Drake

DES MOINES, Iowa- The Iowa State tennis team kicked off its fall season Friday afternoon at the Drake Fall Invitational. The tournament opened with doubles play at the Roger Knapp Tennis Center in Des Moines.

Iowa State's Meghan Cassens and Ana Gasparovic each finished the first day of the tournament with a 3-0 record. After going 2-0 in doubles together, Cassens beat Northern Colorado's Hilary Walters-West and Gasparovic beat UNC's Beth Cotton to advance in singles action.

Cassens will take on Katherine Nelsen of Creighton while Gasparovic will move on to play North Dakota’s Faith Lee.

Cassens and Gasparovic earned a spot in the doubles semifinals after defeating Nebraska-Omaha’s Allison Johnson and Lindsay Wiedeman in the first round and taking down the Creighton duo of Karlin Naslund and Liz Vermillion. Both matches were decided by a score of 8-1. Cassens and Gasparovic will face UNI’s duo of Jordyn Kearney and Krissy Lankelma in the semifinals.

The Cyclone pair of Ksenia Pronina and Caroline Andersen defeated North Dakota’s Callie Ronkowski and Lacey Sprinkel with a score of 8-2 before falling to Drake’s Nell Boyd and Jordan Eggleston in the second round, 8-4.

Pronina, who earned a bye as a result of her No. 1 seed, will play Northern Colorado’s Stephanie Catlin.